Dave Gordon

Reading fan since 1988, also obsessed with football generally (and Balkan football specifically). Able to operate the internet, but not at ease with the medium - here for contrast, like Alan Yentob in the Romford branch of Yates' Wine Lodge.

At the very start of this article, please let me reassure you that this is not some overly nostalgic paean to an age that never existed. I started going to football in the mid 1980’s – this was a truly awful time for the game.

Despite having made the play off final the season before, last year’s Championship winning surge caught many at the club by surprise. The rampage of 15 wins in the last 17 matches had transformed a mid table team into deserved winners, but were the Kings of Middle Earth to become mere serfs in the land of plenty?